VIEANTIANE, Jan 25 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to pay more attention to joint activities in three partner countries, namely China, Japan and South Korea, and take advantage of the strengths of partners and dialogues to promote ASEAN tourism, said Director of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) Nguyen Trung Khanh.
Addressing the 59th Meeting of the ASEAN National Tourism Organisations in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday, he said after COVID-19 pandemic, tourists tend to travel shorter distances, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
It is essential for the bloc to seek out tourism standards in the coming years, taking into account emerging regional trends such as golf tourism, the head of the Vietnamese delegation said, adding that this is an attractive product and also a strength of ASEAN member countries.
He held that more efforts should be paid to developing and diversifying tourism products, with the participation of the member countries, in which ASEAN can jointly organise a joint regional festival.
Khanh told the meeting that Vietnam welcomed about 12.6 million foreign tourists last year, including about 2.1 million visitors from the ASEAN countries. He also expressed optimism about the bright prospects in 2024, saying that the tourism markets of all ASEAN countries will fully recover.
Entitled “Quality and responsible tourism – Sustaining ASEAN future”, the meeting focused on discussing and updating the implementation of the ASEAN Tourism Strategic Plan 2016-2025, and decisions relating to tourism at the 42nd and 43rd ASEAN Summits.
The reports of the ASEAN Tourism Committee and other issues relating to partners and dialogues as well as preparation of agenda and joint statement of the 27th Meeting of ASEAN Tourism Ministers and Related Meetings were also touched upon.
